Lodi Unified headed for trial

STOCKTON - The Lodi Unified School District has opted to go to trial and declined to pay $4.2 million to the family of a special-needs student who was molested on a school bus.

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By Keith Reid

recordnet.com

By Keith Reid

Posted Feb. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Keith Reid

Posted Feb. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - The Lodi Unified School District has opted to go to trial and declined to pay $4.2 million to the family of a special-needs student who was molested on a school bus.

Lawyers representing the now 10-year-old "Diana C." and her family confirmed the proposed settlement figure in court Monday as the civil trial got under way.

Lawyers John Manly, Vince Finaldi and Kenneth Melayco are representing Diana C. and her family in the case, which claims the Lodi Unified School District was negligent in hiring bus driver Richard Evans. Finaldi said the district should have considered Evans' expunged arrest record when he solicited a prostitute in 2000 and that Lodi Unified has a lax policy on monitoring its surveillance footage.

Evans, 61, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in July 2011. He was caught on a bus surveillance camera in November 2010 picking up Diana in front of her home - the first stop on his route - and pulling over in a residential neighborhood in north Stockton to perform a sexual act on her.

Opening statements in the civil trial are expected to begin Friday.

On Monday, Judge Barbara Kronlund ruled that the plaintiffs' lawyers will not be allowed to show the bus surveillance video to a jury to prove district liability. The video will be allowed during a portion of the trial that decides damages that have been done.

Kronlund said showing the video - which shows Evans performing a sex act on the girl for four minutes - is not necessary to prove guilt, because Evans pleaded guilty. She said she thinks the video could cause too much of an emotional charge for jurors and that emotion could lead to an unfair verdict.

"I've been on the bench for 18 years and a prosecutor before that. ... I have never seen a video like this," she said, adding that the video disturbed her, even with the "thick skin" she has developed because of her lengthy career in the judicial system.

Kronlund also ruled that the court would not transport Evans to court to testify regarding his 2000 prostitution arrest. Finaldi said Evans was caught by officers during a time he was working as a truck delivery driver for a potato chip company. Evans negotiated sex inside the delivery truck with a prostitute for the price of $10 and a bag of chips, the attorney said.

Finaldi said Lodi Unified should have realized that Evans was willing to commit a sex-related crime using a company vehicle and should not have hired him.

Evans was contacted by phone in Corcoran State Prison by the court Monday. He said he has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and has no assets to pay Diana and her family. Evans told the court he does not have a retirement account or property and refused to answer more detailed questions because he does not have a lawyer. In his opinion, he said, he has no reason to defend himself in court.

Finaldi said he will make a formal request to have Evans participate via videoconference.